Rosti's Brian Mann to retire from BPF roles

By PRW Staff

Posted 4 February 2013

The British Plastics Federation (BPF) has announced that Brian Mann, former BPF president, is to step down from his roles at the trade body when he retires as managing director of Rosti McKechnie in January next year.

Mann, 67, is currently honorary treasurer of the BPF and has spent his entire career of half a century working in the UK plastics industry.

Mann: a champion of UK manufacturing causes.

Following an apprenticeship with a small West Yorkshire engineering company, he later joined Birkby Plastics, becoming general manager.

He moved to McKechnie Plastics as plant manager of the group’s Pickering site in 1985, becoming group managing director in 2001, steering the group through its integration with Melrose Industries and more recently with Rosti.

Mann was elected BPF president in 2002 and served for two years. He continued as a member of its key strategy and finance committee, becoming honorary treasurer in 2010 and awarded the BPF’s Gold medal for service both to the federation and to the plastics industry in the same year.

Current BPF president, Philip Watkins, said “Brian Mann is unique, a great champion of the manufacturing cause and the finest type of British industrialist. His straight talking style and his wisdom, borne of long experience, have been invaluable in helping the BPF confront difficult issues.

“He correctly forecasted the industrial downturn of 2008 and made sure that the Federation itself was well prepared to resist the cold winds blowing around the economy.”

BPF director-general, Peter Davis said: “With his truly exceptional human qualities, Brian is a great motivator and he represented forcefully the industry's standpoint in meetings with key ministers including the then Energy Secretary, the late Malcolm Wickes, with his characteristic good humour''.

Philip Law, the BPF’s public and industrial affairs director, added: “Brian is the natural leader of the UK's plastics moulding industry. No one can touch him for his intuitive identification of the key trends, long before they materialise.”